The Touch of Poseidon
by Smile Life Away
Summary: "His voice breaks through the waves and he's there; golden in the sun and holding onto his trident." AnnieFinnick


**A/N: Thanks so much to Primrose Amelia & SoUsay234, for betaing this story for me.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing**

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They come to her in dreams – faces floating on the water, a horrible wave crashing down, and blood spilling on the ground while his head rolls away – glassed over eyes staring up at her. They come to her in dreams, and she wakes up screaming - her hands clutching her ears and her eyes shut tight as if it's the outside world that holds these horrible visions instead of her own mind. But there's no help for her. She's in a cell that feels like a cage. She's surrounded by darkness and her only escape is her tortured mind.

~o0o~

"_Here, take a rope and tie a knot." It's what he tells her whenever he finds her curled up on her bed in the train screaming. "I'll show you how to do it."_

_And she watches his hands and then tries herself. Her fingers are clumsy and they stumble, and she wishes she'd paid more attention when her father taught her all those years ago. But he seems pleased that she's trying._

"_You've got it, Annie."_

_It's his voice that makes her smile and it's the smile he returns that saves her from her own mind. Her mind, where faces float on the water and hands reach up to pull her down. Ghost- like hands covered in white foam. His smile and his voice break through, and he appears on the waves with a trident in one hand and his other arm stretching out to pull her from the waves as he rides them like the sea-god himself. It's what gets her through the train ride. His smile, his voice - not the knots. _

~o0o~

"_You just have to smile," he tells her when they arrive in District Four. "You don't have to say a word, just smile. I'll be right beside you, and so will Mags and…" but she stops listening after he says 'I'll be right beside you' nothing else matters. He'll be there to keep her from the horrible visions._

"_Are you ready?" he asks._

_She nods because she's not used to her voice anymore and she's sure the only thing that can come out of it is a scream. And he understands. He understands and gives her a little smile, a real smile. A smile that says everything: 'I'm with you, you're safe.' _

_District Four greets her with a salty breeze. It's a breeze that slaps her dark hair across her cheeks and stings her eyes. And she feels the wave crashing on top of her as her sea green eyes fill with water. And she wants to – needs to – escape. Drowning, drowning, drowning in a sea of red._

"_It's okay, Annie." His voice breaks through the waves and he's there; golden in the sun and holding onto his trident. Poseidon there to protect her. "Smile, Annie," he whispers to her. "Smile for me." She feels his hand around her own as the waves subside. And all that is left is a salty breeze and District Four – a breeze, District Four, and him. He's still, there beside her, with his golden skin and bronze curls, and he's still holding her hand in his own. "Smile for me, Annie." He whispers again and she does. Not for District Four, not for the cameras, not for the Capitol, but for him._

~o0o~

"_You did good," he tells her later – at the feast. "I knew you could do it, Annie."_

_She smiles, but then she's drifting away again, but not into darkness. This time she's drifting into nothingness, and in nothingness there is blinding light and baby blue skies, salty winds and peaceful waters. A boat sits out in the waters and it lazily allows itself to be pulled by the current._

"_Will you dance with me, Annie?" he calls her back, not startling her, but allowing her to resurface into reality._

_She looks at him for a moment with awed disbelief, and then she nods – slow and steady._

"_Just like before," he says._

_Before. When she used to dance with her friends form school in a circle, whenever there was a celebration that warranted the District's attention. Sea green eyes sparkling, shining dark hair flying while they all laughed together._

_It's different._

_She's older and she's half-mad, and every turn feels like she's on the current of an ocean wave. And she's not with her friends in a giddy circle. Instead she's dancing with the most famous heartbreaker known to the Capitol. _

_No, it's not like before._

~o0o~

"_Come on, it's not so bad," he says; weeks later when they're on the beach. Or rather she's on the sand banks of the beach and he's floating on his back in the water. _

"_No, no, it's okay!" Just in case the waves rise and she has to swim, this is as close as she's coming._

_He notices the terrified glint in her eyes and he joins her on the sandy banks by the ocean shore. _

"_It's just water." He shakes the liquid drops from his hair and they splatter all over her. Annie laughs._

_It's an off-laugh, it doesn't sound like her own, but it's more than she could do before. He notices and he beams._

"_I can't." It's a whisper – a whisper that comes with seeing the waves; not as gently lapping against the shore but as monsters growing higher and higher waiting to devour her. _

_Her hands go to her ears, and she shuts her eyes, and she wills the vision to go away. It doesn't. The mountain of water grows higher and higher and it turns red, drips red with blood and –_

"_Shh…it's okay." His voice breaks the waves. He rises from them with his trident as he shines in the sun. "You're okay." And she's back again. Back on the sandy beach where he snakes his arms around her and holds her close to him. He brings her hands down from her ears and he places his lips against the right one. "No one's going to hurt you," he says into her ear. "You're safe with me," he assures her. He's warm, and his skin smells like salt – the same sensation coming from her falling tears._

"_It goes away?" _

"_Of course it does," he lies. His fingers stroke her dark hair. "Even the nightmares go away eventually."_

"_I see him every night." It's a declaration that can only end in screams. "I mean…I see his head and it's…"_

"_Shh…" He holds her tighter as blood red waves form. "You'll be okay." And he's trying to mean it, she thinks. His thumbs wipe away the tears from her cheeks and her eyes sting from the salty residue left on them, but she doesn't say anything. She doesn't want him to let go of her. He's her protection. He's keeping her safe from the blood waves and the rolling heads. "Everything will be okay. You'll never have to go back there again."_

_She turns to stare at him for a few moments and knows he's being sincere; even if he's not being entirely truthful._

_Her mind drifts back to her world of nothingness with the bright light and the blue sky and the ocean. It's a world where her father teaches her brother how to fish while she just sits on the boat and watches; six years old with two long braids and a white sundress with a big blue bow. _

"_Annie?" he calls her away from that world and back to theirs, a beautifully painful world. _

"_I want to go swimming." The words fall from her mouth but it's not her voice. This voice is airy and distant. _

"_Are you sure?" he asks, and she nods. _

_He leads her to the water with her hand in his and every few steps he asks her again – "are you sure?" he asks every few steps and she nods. Just nods. Because she knows if she opens her mouth she'll scream. But she has to do this. _

_Her eyes flash with terror and she clutches onto his hand tighter and he stops. _

"_Are you-"_

_She cuts him off with a nod. A sharp nod as her toes brush against the ocean waves. _

"_I won't let go of you," he promises. "You're safe with me." _

_She clutches his hand as they approach the water, and as the waves begin to build she turns from the ocean. Her ocean. The ocean of her world of nothingness. The ocean of her childhood. And she presses her face against his chest to hide her eyes from the horrible blood waves._

"_They're not real. They're not real," she chants to herself. "They're not real. They're not real." And she feels herself being lifted from the ground and carried back to shore where he places her back on the sand and she adjusts her head so it's buried in his neck. "Not real. Not real. Not real," she chants again. "Not real. Not real. Not real."_

_His fingers find her hair again and they comb through it._

"_You're safe," he whispers. "You're safe." And his lips touch her hair, and then they kiss the crown of her head. _

"_You always rescue me," she says bringing her head up so that she's looking at him. "It's always you, no one else. You're holding your trident and you stop the waves. And you pull me out of the water," she says it as though it's a secret. _

_He doesn't say anything. He just stares at her as if she's some wonder. And then he lifts her chin and presses his lips against hers. It's an action that only lasts a second before he pulls away from her. It's a sensation that takes her to her world of clear skies and lazy waters. Only now she's not a little girl, but she's Annie Cresta – all grown up with her toes hanging over the side of the boat and brushing against the water, and his arms wrapped around her and keeping her safe. _

"_You're the only reason I have dreams and not nightmares," he says, his lips tickling her ear._

_And Annie smiles._

~o0o~

They come to her in dreams – faces floating on the water, a horrible wave crashing down, and blood spilling on the ground while his head rolls away – glassed over eyes staring up at her. They come to her in dreams, and she wakes up screaming; her hands clutching her ears and her eyes shut tight as if it's the outside world that holds these horrible visions instead of her own mind. But there's no help for her. She's in a cell that feels like a cage. She's surrounded by darkness and her only escape is her tortured mind. And it is to that mind that she escapes. A place of ocean waves, baby blue skies, and a sailboat hugging the tides. Back to District Four. Back to freedom. Back to him.

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**A/N: So this is my first attempt at writing anything for the Hunger Games Trilogy. What do you think? Be honest. I'm new to the fandom, but not new to Fanfiction.**

**If you're interested in checking out any of my Harry Potter fanfics than visit my profile.**

**Thanks for reading =D**


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